First hundreds of observers, largely law enforcement personnel, were treated to intriguing lights which maneuvered across the sky, then two unidentifiable objects impacted spectacularly with the ground, and that was followed by a diving craft which drove two military policemen off the road. It was only later that the really weird stuff started to happen as reports of aliens were received from across the state. It was autumn, 1973, and the most intense wave of UFO sightings in American history had begun in Georgia. The massive UFO “flap” reached Warner Robins on the night of October 17 when two substantial UFO reports were received. The two incidents were separate, but occurred within thirty minutes and one mile of each other. At nine p.m. Lawrence Smith, Peggy Stepp, and her daughter Kathy spotted a large, cigar shaped object about 100 feet above the ground. They followed it down Dunbar and Bateman roads and when they got closer, “I was petrified,” Smith said, for suddenly “! there were two of them. And then they started getting close, and we started getting scared.” The UFOs were heard to emit humming sounds. Stepp began to scream and Smith raced toward a more inhabited area. The craft was ‘about the size of a house,” he said, and “had red, green, and blue lights.” “The UFOs began to close in,” Stepp said, and then, “my God, there was one right behind us. My daughter screamed hysterically, and the thing stopped right above us and put this bright light on the car.” “It was so bright,” Smith added. “I thought it was going to blind me. I have never seen a light like that.” The two adults agreed that the multi-colored lights grew in intensity as the airship approached. “It just hovered there like a helicopter making the humming noise,” Smith said, “and then, it was gone in a flash.” Smith called the Houston County Sheriff’s Department to report the incident at 9:30. Meanwhile, Corporal Bobby Fisher was dispatched to investigate a UFO sighting near ! Elberta and Dunbar roads. He reached the old Houston County Fa! irground s, an elevated area with a good view of the surrounding countryside, at 9:57, and apparently saw the same object reported by Smith and Stepp, hovering above the trees. ”It approached a clear field,” he reported, “and then took off in a westerly direction. It was huge with red, blue, and green lights. I chased it when it zoomed over me. It made a humming noise, sort of like electricity going through a wire.” Fisher, who described his UFO as being “big as a building,” bravely pursued the craft and overtook it on Dunbar Road a mile east of Houston Lake Road. “It stopped there right over me, and I got out of the car,” he continued. “I took my flashlight and pointed it at the thing. Hell, it was only about 100 feet above me. I couldn’t see anything for the bright light. I think I got some type of reflection off of it when I pointed my flashlight at it. That’s how close it was. I thought that damn thing was going to land right there in that field. “I stayed on the radio trying to ! get someone else out there. I didn’t want anyone to think I was crazy.

The UFO began moving slowly, then raced away “extremely fast.” “If that thing would have landed,” Fisher declared, “I think I would have walked over to it.” Lawrence Smith said that his UFO “sounds exactly the same as the one the deputy saw.” Jim Cosey, executive editor of the Warner Robins Daily Sun, believed that Smith, Stepp, and Fisher “saw something. They sounded sincere and nearly hysterical on the phone.” Cosey rousted three reporters out of bed and joined them on a nocturnal tour around the city that produced no aerial anomalies. Around the time of these incidents, tens of thousands of central Georgia residents reported UFOs that were easily explained. Two weather balloons were launched by the National Weather Service from Texas and Alabama. Measuring 150 feet in diameter, the balloons drifted over at 55,000 feet, high enough to reflect sunlight long after the sun had set. At Eglin Air Force Base in Florida two rockets were launched which released clouds of glowing red, green, and yellow gases at an altitude of six miles. These sightings were spectacular, but they were not UFOs, nor did they explain the reports filed by Smith, Stepp, and Fisher.

And on this page: http://www.brownsguides.com/blog/weird-georgia-alien-invasion-the-ufos-of-1973-part-10-gas-bags-and-gaseous/ Most of the residents of Warner Robins are either military personnel or civilian workers at Robins Air Force Base, which is central Georgia’s largest employer, and they habitually watch the skies. Thousands of people crowded the streets on October 17, staring skyward at the spectacle, and the Warner Robins Police Department logged over 400 calls reporting UFOs. All but perhaps two sightings were explained by the weather balloons, but those were substantial reports from four persons, including a law enforcement officer, who chased and were chased by mammoth aircraft. Also, for the record, those sightings occurred an hour after the weather balloons had cleared the area.